Conor McGregor appears at a Brooklyn court on Thursday. The Irish fighter’s last fight came in the boxing ring against Floyd Mayweather last year.
Photograph: Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Images

Conor McGregor expressed regret on Thursday for a backstage melee at a Brooklyn arena, and is in plea negotiations to resolve charges in the case. The former UFC champion and co-defendant Cian Cowley remain free on bail after a brief court appearance.

The men marched into court in tight blue suits, and passed a gallery packed with reporters and other defendants waiting for their hearings. They stood and said little during the appearance. “I regret my actions that led me here today,” McGregor said outside court afterward. “I understand the seriousness of this matter and I’m hopeful to get it resolved soon.”

Video footage showed McGregor hurling an object at a bus full of fighters after a press conference for UFC 223 at New York’s Barclays Center in April. He and an entourage that UFC president Dana White described as “20 hoodlums that flew in from Ireland” crashed the event allegedly looking for retaliation against main event fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov, who had been in an altercation with McGregor’s friend, Artem Lobov.

Video also showed McGregor tossing trash cans and being blocked from throwing a barricade in the incident. Fighters Michael Chiesa and Ray Borg were hurt by shattered glass, forcing them from their bouts. White said McGregor justified the confrontation in a text exchange just before he turned himself in to police. According to White, he said it “had to be done.”

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Assistant district attorney Janet Gleeson said the case hasn’t been presented to a grand jury for possible indictment because of the plea negotiations, signaling interest from all sides in resolving the matter swiftly.